Posted: Today 1:20:54 AM EDT
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I have had others working under me in my life. My people skill technique is to try to build them up, not tear them down. I always tell them that there are no stupid questions if they don`t know something. Better to know and make an informed decision than not to know and screw the pooch because one is unwilling to ask out of fear that they will be ridiculed. I am sure that other folks, including myself at some point, were. Have had great success building folks up. Earned a lot of respect also. Yelling at folks or belittling them, doesn`t do anything for moral in the workplace. |
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It's simple. If someone fucks up it's either a coaching issue if you never told them what to do and how to do and gave them the resources to do it, or it's a behavioral issue if you did all of the above and they keep fucking up (they know what to do but are choosing not to). If it's a coaching issue, shame on me. If it's a behavioral issue, then we have the talk. We have too many talks and it's coach your ass out the door. |
| I had one gig as a supervisor and I realized quickly I didn’t have the touch for it. You have to be a hard ass with compassion at the correct times, believing all of your employees will rob you blind while identifying the ones that will give you 110% loyalty for giving them a day or two off during family emergencies. |
Sancte Michael Archangele, defende nos in proelio,
contra nequitiam et insidias diaboli esto praesidium.
Vivat Iesus.
contra nequitiam et insidias diaboli esto praesidium.
Vivat Iesus.
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Originally Posted By safes2small: One of the most important parts of being the boss is making sure the employees have the tools, knowledge and skills to perform. If they are lacking in an area find a way to fix it for them. Exactly. Removing barriers. |
Sancte Michael Archangele, defende nos in proelio,
contra nequitiam et insidias diaboli esto praesidium.
Vivat Iesus.
contra nequitiam et insidias diaboli esto praesidium.
Vivat Iesus.
Arfcom's favorite midnight DG shelf stocker
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Stressful but rewarding. I still get texts from my old minions every now and then. I gave them my evals to write for the year and got some interesting things back. |
connoisseur of fine Soviet and European armored vehicles since 2007.
Thank you to the unknown person who bought me a membership.
Thank you to the unknown person who bought me a membership.
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Originally Posted By safes2small: One of the most important parts of being the boss is making sure the employees have the tools, knowledge and skills to perform. If they are lacking in an area find a way to fix it for them. Give them the tools, and if they get better, it is working. I try to help them get better. A few, are.....................problem children. Still haven`t figured out how to "advance" them. Some people are lazy. Hard to handle a situation as such. It isn`t a perfect world. |
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My theory is managers that are assholes or over authoritative are insecure about their own knowledge and performance. If you know what you're doing and know the subject you're not gonna act like a jackass, you'll be relaxed and precise in helping someone get their job accomplished, not emotional I'm also a big believer in treating people as I would want to be treated, and have observed that if someone is going to be a fucker people on the receiving end are going to drag their feet or do the bare minimum rather than perform. Other than lives on the line there's no reason a grown adult has to act like that |
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Originally Posted By byron2112: My theory is managers that are assholes or over authoritative are insecure about their own knowledge and performance. If you know what you're doing and know the subject you're not gonna act like a jackass, you'll be relaxed and precise in helping someone get their job accomplished, not emotional I'm also a big believer in treating people as I would want to be treated Points well made. |
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Originally Posted By Daggertt: In his book extreme ownership, Jocko willink illustrates that there are no bad teams only bad leaders. The describes how during BUDS, when poor performing teams and well performing teams switched leaders their performance also changed. I can understand that statement. I believe that it is true. |
| No such thing as 110%..impossible to achieve. But. You can give 90%, 100% of the time? I'll take it. |
SOCIALISM COMMUNISM AND FACISM ONLY WORK WHEN BOOT HEEL OF A POLITICAL CLASS IS ON THE NECK OF THE WORKING CLASS, PICKING POCKETS FOR THE LEISURE CLASS
Fighting Commies since 1969
Fighting Commies since 1969
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One thing I haven’t had to deal with yet is the drop in performance and effectiveness of an aging employee. I have one worker, who has been great for over a decade. However, they are getting older, forgetting things, making simple tasks more complicated, struggling to follow directions, etc. it’s tough because they have been great but now they are becoming a time suck. Dealing with that, without losing patience and diminishing my view of them as a person, is challenging—especially knowing that I will be that person at some point. |
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Originally Posted By jmt1991: When they do something well, I always compliment them, and at the very least, thank them. I can't give them more money, but I can at least help make things more pleasant. In all of the years that I put in to a company, hearing a Thanks was very rare. It is the little things. People remember that stuff. |
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I learned long ago in my journey of being a manager that belittling and yelling at people is not the way. I had a few horrible bosses in my life and currently have an owner , that believe in "managing" employees as opposed to leading them. I look at it as some very old school thinking that is still very prevalent in the workplace. For me as a manager I want to see people grow in their abilities and become a better and more successful worker. Whether that is with me long term or helping them move on with their careers , that is part of my responsibility. There is nothing more rewarding then to see people grow in their careers and develop the "right" type of thinking. |
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When I put on my anchors in the Navy (made E7), it was described to me that there were functionally 3 paths to managing a team, but only one of them was actual "leadership". The first is "the buddy", which is easy because everyone wants to be liked and there are in fact some folks that will work for a person they like. It's superfically personal, and it feels like you care, so its emotionally satisying, and so it appeals to people that lead with their emotions and crave being liked. It fails the second that things get difficult, or when faced with lazy or adversarial subordinates. The second is "the tyrant", which is easy because most people will perform out of raw fear of getting penalized. They'll hate it, but they'll generally do just enough to keep their butts out of the sling. It appeals to the petty tyrants that are out there, as well as being the simplist method for just doing the job. It fails though when you need some level of loyalty or real performance. People will seek to backstab you, and will never actually put out at the level you need, and to eke out any real level of performance you'll have to micromanage to a massive level. The third is in the middle. It's hard because it requires the leader to care, but actually put in the effort to change their approach. They have to think about the RIGHT approach for each situation and each subordinate. It requires massive attention and significant work on the part of the leader. You have to be able to empathize with the employee that came in late or needs to leave early, but also you have to have the strength to punish the employee that abuses the system. Be cool enough to grab a beer during a team lunch, but strict enough that nobody thinks to get a buzz on and drive back to the office. |
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I tried to be that way as best as I could. Closer to retirement I leaned on a few of them harder to do what I did so they were prepared and one of my crew could move up into my position. My managers accused me of being lazy and dumping my work on them.  I told them Fuckit. I was trying to prepare them for when I retire, but you know what? It’s your problem now, I retired. |
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Originally Posted By safes2small: One of the most important parts of being the boss is making sure the employees have the tools, knowledge and skills to perform. If they are lacking in an area find a way to fix it for them. This. I Tell my team this all the time. My main goal is to get you what you need to be successful. If you are successful, by default I am successful. in my 8 years of being in a management role, i have only ever had 2 people leave the organization, I've had numerous folks leave to take on new roles in the same organization using the skills and knowledge they developed working for me. I view that as a win. |
Sun's up, Guns up!
"The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary"
-Vince Lombardi
"The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary"
-Vince Lombardi
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Working in a union environment as a salaried supervisor has been a test for me. As a leader in the Army, shitbirds and low performers were easy to motivate or move out, and we had processes in place to make you disappear with the paper trail if you sucked. Here, I have 2-3 that will bust their ass for you, and many more that ride the clock like it's a gift they are even there. I can write up for days but HR has no backbone against the union. I have union leaders literally telling people not to work too hard as it will make others look bad and keep us "humble". This is the most toxic place I have ever worked because the culture of union team members is so trash in our department. It's also the first time in my professional career where I can not lead by example and do/show how to do the work. I am not allowed to lift a fucking finger, or risk a grievance. We literally had a supervisor step in and help stop a large christmas decoration from falling on team members because they lost their grip, and he got a grievance over it... I have all the tools in the world to motivate those who are willing to be, but none to correct the ones who cannot/will not be better, which in turns lowers morale for my high performers. |
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Originally Posted By Daggertt: In his book extreme ownership, Jocko willink illustrates that there are no bad teams only bad leaders. The describes how during BUDS, when poor performing teams and well performing teams switched leaders their performance also changed. He was also dealing with highly motivated individuals. Not everyone is motivated enough to be possible to inspire. |
It's true no matter who you are, the worst thing you can do for someone is give them something for nothing. - 3rdpig
Do not handicap your children by making their lives easy. - Heinlein
Do not handicap your children by making their lives easy. - Heinlein
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Clarity is kindness. I will tell you what needs to be done, and usually why. If you tell me you don't understand, I will explain again in a different way. If you tell me you don't know how, I will find someone to teach you. If you tell me you need help, I will find someone to help you. If you tell me you messed up, I will help you fix it. If you hide from problems, you become a problem for me to fix. If you lie to me, you will be fired. |
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I have been a supervisor for almost 9 years now. For about 5-1/2 of those, I would have about 20 direct reports, a mix of long-term employees and new hires right out of college. I always told them that I had three goals as a supervisor. 1) Make sure they get paid correctly. Regular pay or travel reimbursement. Nothing make someone unhappy faster than screwed up pay. 2) Train them to do their job. Open door policy on questions. 3) Help them get promoted. I always told them not to worry about leaving a hole in the team. That was my job to take care of. |
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My main gripe as a doer was that the bosses don't know me and they didn't give a shit. As a manager of a group of 10 people I made a point to know all of their wives/kids names and know about them personally. Every Friday instead of our normal workload meeting it would be strictly non-work discussions like weekend plans. Everyone in the group was also tasked with making a bucket list for the year and we all held each other to those lists. 40 minutes of non-work on a Friday made our team more productive. My only managerial advice is there is no way to trick people into thinking you give a shit about them. They either know that you do or know that you don't. |
| I hate being a manager. That's because I'm a pushover. 9 out of the 10 people onmy team members are perfect. I'm not a micro manager, I tell them if they piss someone off accidentally just tell me and I'll help fix it. Don't have anyone complain to me about your work performance. 1 guy continues to be a dickhead and everyone hates him. I need to fire him but I keep telling myself, maybe he will change. I know he won't in the end. |
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Originally Posted By lumper: He was also dealing with highly motivated individuals. Not everyone is motivated enough to be possible to inspire. I tell my employees we aren't a family we are a championship sports team. If your brother is a shit bag he's still your brother. If you're a pro athlete and you stop providing value to the team, we're going to trade you for someone else. I only hire motivated high performing individuals with the competence and attitude we are looking for. If you can't or won't pull your weight and meet the standards, then I don't want you around dragging down the team. It's actually more motivating for my good employees to take on some of the tasks while I find someone new than watch a shit bag clearly fail to perform and get tolerated for the same salary they are getting. And they end up having to do his work anyway but with him in the way. If someone would quit tomorrow and you'd feel relieved and happy to see them go, then they shouldn't be there in the first place and if you're not moving to get them where they need to be or rid of them then that's a leadership problem. I'm not a tyrant. I give my employees a lot of latitude and context so they can make good decisions without me but I have strict standards especially for attitude and ownership. I have a lady I hired recently that interviewed great and seemed like what we needed but it has been a chrome months now and not only can she not hit the targets, she doesn't get the whole ownership thing. Failed deadlines and excuses with only half ass implementing of her priorities. She has been gone the last 3 days for "back pain". When she's back on Friday, I'm putting her on a PIP and she'll be gone in a month or so (Kenya isn't "at will" employment). I just brought in a new HR manager last week after sacking the previous HR manager for being freaking terrible. Along with about 20 other people. (My team in Madagascar is running smoothly without me because of how I built the team so now I'm in Kenya cleaning house and rebuilding for a sister company). |
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Originally Posted By Xringlover: I have had others working under me in my life. My people skill technique is to try to build them up, not tear them down. I always tell them that there are no stupid questions if they don`t know something. Better to know and make an informed decision than not to know and screw the pooch because one is unwilling to ask out of fear that they will be ridiculed. I am sure that other folks, including myself at some point, were. Have had great success building folks up. Earned a lot of respect also. Yelling at folks or belittling them, doesn`t do anything for moral in the workplace. Ill add decent pay raises or promotion to the list. One of my best people has been pushing to get bumped up a level. Same job but going from a tech 2 to a tech 3 for example. This normally means a 3-5% raise on top of their annual raises. I have advocated for him constantly. After 18 months of excuses by corporate my great employee put in his notice last week. Imagine losing a great employee over what might have been an extra $2500/year in pay. When the employees job is to remotely repair equipment that costs $3,000-$20,000 each, multiple times over each day, sending out $2,500 parts or $2,500 reimbursement payments as a courtesy for stuff the installer damaged. Now we are going to spend much more than what the raises would have been to train a new guy. And when the new guy makes a mistake as they all do, it will cost tens of thousands. All because the company didn't want to pay an extra $2,000-3,000 a year. The company policy of keep the customer happy means that my little department spends at least $15,000 a day giving stuff away that isn't covered by warranty. Yet fuck your $3,000/yr raise request |
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Originally Posted By Xringlover: I have had others working under me in my life. My people skill technique is to try to build them up, not tear them down. I always tell them that there are no stupid questions if they don`t know something. Better to know and make an informed decision than not to know and screw the pooch because one is unwilling to ask out of fear that they will be ridiculed. I am sure that other folks, including myself at some point, were. Have had great success building folks up. Earned a lot of respect also. Yelling at folks or belittling them, doesn`t do anything for moral in the workplace. what kind of business?? I've been a production manger for the past 30yrs in boating industry its full of retards |
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Originally Posted By Xringlover: snip I always tell them that there are no stupid questions if they don`t know something. Snip I used to think this, but then I was teaching a class and someone asked, "Can I get AIDS from having sex with a dead person?" That was followed up with, "Can I get AIDS from eating a dead person?"  |
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I have a very simple please ask before doing something sketchy or stupid policy. Lying will get you shitcanned immediately. Theft will get you shitcanned. I can bust balls but we don’t tolerate abuse or hostile work environment and my office girls are off limits to bullshit and pranks. Had a young guy I hired make the mistake of not keeping his hands to himself and got walked out immediately and then earned himself a restraining order for not understanding what no meant. |
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Originally Posted By mooreshawnm: There needs to be accountability. It isn't 'yelling' at the workforce. ETA: this thread sounds like feel good training/theory from an HR class. Agreed 100%......if someone on my team fucks up, they will know I'm not happy about and I don't put on kid gloves to have the conversation. When it's over and they've had their "ass chewing".....it's almost always followed up with "that's done, no need to dwell on it.....let's go grab lunch, when we get back from lunch I'm going to help you unfuck this thing" or something along those lines. I agree with the other posts too.....in general my core job responsibility it to give my people the tools and knowledge to be successful. I have a great team and it's pretty rare that I need to have the "what the fuck were you thinking here" conversation. I can only think of 2 times in the last few years that it's happened.....both times the employee owned the fuck up and 15 minutes later everything was back normal. In the 8 years I've been in my role at this company, I've only had fire one person and it wasn't because they made mistakes, it was because they wouldn't own them and kept repeating them. The other side of the coin is admitting your mistakes to your team. We had to have a meeting last week where I started the meeting by saying "guys, I fucked up and let something slip through the cracks.....I need your help on this". They pulled together and crushed it for me.....I thanked them by taking them to lunch that Friday and when lunch was finished, I told them to take the rest of the day off (all salary people, so no financial impact to them). |
EP429: Today's lesson - Don't provoke ARFCOM. People will see your butthole.
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I tell my apprentices to trainees a lot their first year the following….. “Ask all the questions you want and can think of. Questions don’t cost money, mistakes do. If you’re unsure, come ask me all the questions you want and we will work the problem together.” So far the folks I have trained have succeeded further than I have l, which makes me happy and proud of them. |
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Originally Posted By AlabamaFan64: I had one gig as a supervisor and I realized quickly I didn't have the touch for it. You have to be a hard ass with compassion at the correct times, believing all of your employees will rob you blind while identifying the ones that will give you 110% loyalty for giving them a day or two off during family emergencies. I had to change careers, but I am back to being a peon - a well paid, very competent, highly respected peon. No one reports to me. And I am so much happier. My current and previous bosses have urged me to apply for a management position. I declined, and when they pushed it, I told them if they promoted me to management anyway I'd quit. I am not to be put in charge of people. Period. |
"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
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there is a HUGE difference in being a manager and being a leader. Leaders build up their teams and support them. they allow and trust them to do their jobs without interference. My job is keeping the bullshit off of my guys and letting them fly. I am blessed with some seriously talented guys that don't really need supervision. what they needed was management to get out of their way. The guy i replaced was a micromanager that was worried more about his legacy than building a real team and it showed. 90% of what we did was not our actual jobs. No one was happy or enjoyed being here. it took me 2-3 weeks to undo all of that crap and these guys are performing at exceptional levels now and actually enjoy their jobs. I have always believed that a leaders role is first and foremost taking care of those under them. if you take care of the team they will take care of you. Most managers really do not understand that. |
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My job is to empower my team by giving them the appropriate training, tools, knowledge, authority, and coaching to do their jobs. Their job is to have the right attitude. The results will speak for themselves. I’m fortunate to have a high performing team so my job is easy. ETA: I forgot one of my most important roles: Provide air cover. No one is perfect. Coaching is done in private. Externally we are one team. |
Originally Posted By Geohans:
The human body follows the laws of thermodynamics until you introduce insulin. Then things get “bent” like a light beam around a gravitational object.
The human body follows the laws of thermodynamics until you introduce insulin. Then things get “bent” like a light beam around a gravitational object.